Articles by Reshmi Chakraborty

I was at a baby store and in walked a pair of newly minted parents buying everything that the "helpful" store staff pointed to them. Socket covers? Door slammers? latches? Bring it on. Baby monitor? But of course. Do you even need to ask? Diaper pail? Umm...looks cool...ok we will think about that one. Pic: Reshmi Chakraborthy I had to restrain the urge to run and shake the lovely pair out of their baby buying stupor. Because that was me six and half years back, visiting stores armed with a list, courtesy baby books, baby websites and friends, all made,…

What shall he do this summer? That's the question I have been asking myself now that March hits the midway mark. The temptation is to answer, ‘nothing.' But who am I kidding? I am not strong enough to withstand the now near compulsory pressure of having to enrol the tyke in a ‘Summer Camp.' River rafting at Frolic Boonies. Pic: Frolic Boonies These days not fixing up a summer camp is almost like denying your child an important developmental milestone. Doing nothing is no longer an option, almost up there in the banned list as sleeping late.Even if you are…

Once, when the older brat was two years old, I was visiting relatives in Delhi and came across a bubbly young lady who was thrilled at having won a very special gift hamper. It turned out that her son, also two, had just been judged ‘Best smile'' baby in a Healthy Baby Competition he (or rather she) had participated in. My eyes had almost popped out of their sockets. Did such competitions still exist? Weren't they rather regressive, pitting one baby over another purely on the basis of their looks and if I may add, chubbiness? Pic: Wikimediacommons I may…

It's very difficult being a non judgemental mom. Turns out, being judgemental comes wired into your system, the moment you become a mom. Not about yourself of course. We are judgemental about other mothers, the one who bottle-feeds her infant; the one who sends her kid to Karate ALL ALONE despite the fact that he has to cross a busy road; the one who thinks nothing of serving her kid Pepsi. In other words, the mother, who in our eyes is "wrong" while we ourselves are obviously doing it right or at least hoping that we are. Pic: Wikimedia commons…

So have you started him on finger foods yet? The lady at the park asks the question pointing towards my nine month old. Since I'm debating the best zigzag (and breeziest) route to take the stroller around so that he goes off to sleep, I take some time to answer. Yes, I have started to give him finger foods. At the moment, it's Parle G. Someday I will graduate to ‘well cooked carrot sticks' as mentioned in those parenting tomes. Until then he can nibble on biscuits in between meals if required. Oh yes, and I forgot his finger, which…

It's been my long cherished motherhood dream. A good sized drawer to hold all those fancy stuff that can turn you into the queen of craft in minutes, making short work of last minute projects that involve felt, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, glitter and anything slightly more complicated and hard to find than colourful markers. At this point the dream or rather the drawer, expands into a cupboard which also holds gifts for various genders and ages between two to ten, bought at half price during off -season sales. This is precisely the moment that I give myself a jolt…

There's more to being a parent than posing prettily with the cherub, wrote a slightly hassled friend on Facebook. The reason? Her son's upcoming birthday or at least the decision making process of it. I could not resist an evil and slightly relieved laugh. So it wasn't just me who dreaded the birthday juggernaut- the planning, the presents, the cake, the theme and of course, the return gift, which is a must give these days unless you have been living under a rock or are very brave and do not care for public opinion, especially from pint sized people.At our…

The digital SLR and her obsession with it is what came to Koramangala resident Chitra Aiyer's  succour about a year and a half ago. Chitra tragically lost her father to an illness and in her own words, photography helped her cope. "I found that when I was looking through the viewfinder and clicking, it helped me deal with the whole thing a lot," says the photographer and blogger. Like Aiyer, who specialises in wedding, children and family photography, the camera opened several avenues for many in the city. Farmers of Bellandur. Pic: Vivek M Bangalore Photography Club's (BPC) Mayur Channagere…

Saarus Nirhali is a girl in love with glass. Butterflies, angels, swans and flowers make up most of her repertoire of original stained glass art. The enterprising 28 year old used to be a criminal lawyer in another life before her move to Bangalore from Mumbai, when she decided to learn something new and take a break. Saarus Nirhali, founder of Glasshopper. Pic: Reshmi Chakraborty. The ‘something new' turned out to be stained glass, something Saarus had always been fascinated by especially after noticing stained glass window panels in churches abroad as a child. She found 92-year-old, Vinayak Patel, a…

In 2000, it was still BMP managing 100 wards. How have things shaped up since then? The quiet bean town became the centre of world's attention practically overnight and since then the city's infrastructure is only been playing catch up. Hasty road-widenings with arbitrary plans of TDRs, relocation of slums without a though tto the urban poor's basic needs, large-scale corruption by local civic bodies in land allocation and building rights are all in the recent memory. In 2000, it was still BMP managing 100 wards and Prema Cariappa was the Mayor. Ward Committees existed briefly, but were not very…